SBUnifiedBy the Santa Barbara Unified School District
The Santa Barbara Unified Board of Trustees unanimously approved the appointment of a new principal at McKinley Elementary School.
Daisy Estrada Ochoa is taking over the role permanently after spending the past month in the role on an interim basis.
This is a homecoming for Ochoa, who spent five years as a 1st and 3rd-grade teacher at McKinley Elementary early in her career.
“I am humbled to be given the opportunity to be back and be part of such an incredible community that I have been a part of since I was a young girl. I look forward to working with parents, staff, district leaders, and our community in leading McKinley and transforming children’s lives through language,” said Ochoa.
McKinley is known for its Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program in Spanish and English.
Ochoa is a longtime SB Unified Employee who most recently served as Director of Early Childhood and After School Programs since July 2022.
Before that, she spent seven years working as an After School/Expanded Learning Program Coordinator and the Early Childhood Education Administrator.
Ochoa was also a Dual Language Immersion teacher at Cesar Chavez Charter School in Santa Barbara.
“One of our goals at Santa Barbara Unified is to educate the next generation of leaders and scholars. Daisy is a shining example of that as someone who came up through our school system. We are so proud to see her grow with the District and give back to the community through her service as an educator,” said Dr. Hilda Maldonado, Superintendent.
She’s a Santa Barbara native, graduating from Monroe Elementary, La Cumbre Junior High, and San Marcos High School.
Ochoa is also a graduate of UCSB, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Masters in Education, along with a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential.
Did they open the job to current teachers first? It seems like SB unified hand picks who they want. She was a teacher for 5 years, worked as afterschool program for years and last year they decided to promote her to Director of Early childhood and now she’s a principal? Great for her but sad if others did not get the same opportunities and she was handpicked to get the job
So you don’t know if that was the case – so you are complaining about something that may or not have been the case – but you are somewhat ok with the choice?
Not sure if you know this, but most teachers don’t desire to become principals. I suspect in SB this is even more true.
Way to go Daisy!!
Well, as long as Ms Daisey has pledged her allegiance to Maldonado, she can do no wrong, results don’t count, only intentions. Permanent is yet to be seen. Qualifications don’t seem to have mattered with any of the previous, 6 principles within the past seven years. 19 teachers and staff were replaced several years ago with the role out of the bilingual program, a failed concept. New teachers that would not question what they were asked to do have been teaching 90 percent in Spanish to incoming K and first-grade classes, by second 80 percent, and so on until 5th grade when they have 50 /50 English instruction. No surprise their scores show 9% of students scored at or above proficiency in math and 27 percent scored at or above proficiency in reading.
And yet this school’s motto is “transforming lives thru language” ?
The enrolment is 98 percent Latino where the language at home is predominantly Spanish and yet they are targeting Spanish instruction. Sadly, Maldonado will go down with the ship rather than admit it’s not working.
Mrs. Ochoa, you have worked tirelessly for the advancement of children in this community, and those who really know you are aware of the dedication and diligence it took for you to achieve this position; additionally, your qualifications in fact exceed the requirements. You have never been given a handout, you earned every milestone albeit conquering personal obstacles and doing it all with grace and selflessness; few people can assert this for themselves. Every degree and certification you hold has been earned through sleepless nights, and perseverance. Incredibly proud and rooting for your continued successes. Political agendas have never influenced your career path, and people who wish to distribute negativity and disparaging predisposition have a baseless moral, whilst this article is simply to announce a position. Thank you to those for the optimistic comments.
I hope Ms Ochoa is able to turn things around for students at McKinley. Her job is difficult given how little exposure to english is in the META program… ( designed by former district employee Ramirez who is no longer at the district) Systemic changes need to be made at the district and McKinley is not exception. In 2018-1019 before McKinley did a dual language model that only allows for 10% of english language instruction in 1st, then 20% in 2nd and 10% more each year until 6th. CAASP scores were 46% for english and 35% for math before the META was introduced.. Though I am in favor of dual language program but I don’t think the SBUSD model is effective at all .
In 2018-2019 scores for all students were 46% proficient in english and 35% in math. These scores mean that over half are years behind. Now in 2021-22 CAASP scores are even lower…. only 12% proficient in english and math.
These vulnerable students are suffering from META program which has lowered achievement at McKinley and also Adelante. It is time to change META to include more english as well. Or at least offer these students one on one remediation in reading for the summer. 12% is going to hurt these students for the rest of their lives. If you can’t read by end of third , and have socioeconomic hardship as many at McKinley do.. it is unlikely the students will ever learn english well enough to take the A-G classes need to even apply to a four year UC. They will never get into UCSB like Ms Ochoa did.
It would be refreshing if Ms Ochoa spoke about these painful low scores. How does she plan to change things? Can she make systemic changes on her campus or is she just going to keep on with the same painful plan that hurts student who are counting on the public school to come through for them in the most basic of things, namely reading and math. When something is not working , change is needed. Would love to hear what Ms. Ochoa plans to do. Hopefully not more of the same. It’s one thing for the program to fail students but it is even worse to keep on using it despite all data that indicates it is hurting these students.